And the shattered visitors admitted that they had been swept aside by a vastly superior team.

Where did it go wrong? Captain Chris Robshaw and flyhalf Owen Farrell are dejected after England's defeat

‘The best side won,’ said head coach Stuart Lancaster. ‘I have no complaints. We have an extremely disappointed dressing room. We’ve had a fantastic tournament up until today so to come up short was not what we planned.

‘We felt we were still in the game at half-time. The crucial period was the third quarter when Wales scored a penalty and a try to pull away. We then began to chase the game and it ran away from us. We made a bad job worse and the momentum for the last 20 minutes of the game was all with Wales.

‘We’ll learn a lot from this as a team. They had 650-odd caps, and we had fewer than 300. Wales held their nerve when they went on their long losing streak last year and so will we after this.’Lancaster’s captain, Chris Robshaw, who put up a typically defiant display in the game, echoed the coach’s sentiments. ‘We were beaten by the better side in all departments and it’s hard to take,’ said Robshaw.

Double trouble: Wales retained their Six Nations title with a crushing victory over a below-par England side

‘It’s a disappointed dressing room, not just because we lost, and the manner of our defeat, but because of what was at stake tonight. We came here to win the Grand Slam and the Six Nations title. ‘I’m proud to lead this team and we’ll learn a lot from a defeat like this. The shame is that we’ll have a long time to think about this defeat and wait for the chance to make amends.’

Forwards coach Graham Rowntree admitted that he had taken the Welsh ascendancy in the pack hard after seeing his front and back rows come off second best against their opponents. ‘As a coach I need to look at myself first and then review the tape because we conceded far too many penalties in the pack,’ he said.

Wales, in contrast, were ecstatic after a Six Nations campaign that began with a home defeat to Ireland, but ended with a drubbing of England — and the title.

‘I’m really proud to be a Welshman tonight,’ said the interim head coach, Rob Howley. ‘The win is up there with anything I’ve achieved in rugby and it’s certainly my best result as a coach.’

His captain, Gethin Jenkins, has won three Grand Slams but labelled last night as an even better experience. ‘Everyone expected us to win our Grand Slam games but for today we’d been written off because England had been so good coming into this game,’ said the loosehead prop.

‘To get that win over the English and especially to stop them winning the Grand Slam has made the boys ecstatic back in our dressing room. We have worked hard in the past few weeks and it has all worked out.’

Three kings: The Wales back row of Justin Tipuric, Sam Warburton and Toby Faletau celebrate

Man of the match Justin Tipuric said: ‘It’s unreal. It’s a dream come true to be honest. I never thought we would play so well. Everyone worked so hard — it’s brilliant. We knew what we could do. We’ve been ready since Monday but to turn up and produce such a performance — I’m chuffed to bits.’

England backs coach Andy Farrell said: ‘It’s obviously the quietest that our dressing room has been in a while. The loss means it is a pretty disappointed and dejected place.’

Lancaster added: ‘Wales played well and we didn’t match their physicality. It’s a simple game and their physicality was better than ours.’